Butler, Judith (1956–)

Judith Butler is an illustrious poststructuralist philosopher who has made contributions to ethics, feminism, social and political philosophy, and queer theory. Born on February 24, 1956, Butler grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984. In the mid-1980s Butler was introduced to the works of Michel Foucault. His ideas soon became a major influence on her philosophical thoughts and writing. She is currently Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

Butler strongly believes that philosophy does not mean inaction. She asserts that actions are performed because of principles and that principles come from the desire for philosophy. Thus, she believes it is important politically for people to ask what is possible and then to believe in that possibility. She feels that without this belief, people will be unable to advance. Philosophy makes people think about possible roles (gender or otherwise), and it gives people the chance to think about the world in different ways.

In the late 1980s, Butler was involved in poststructuralist efforts within Western feminist theory questioning the assumptions of feminism. Butler believes that feminism incorrectly asserts that women are a group with common characteristics, goals, and interests. Butler asserts that gender is a relation among socially constituted subjects in specifiable contexts. This means that rather than being a static attribute in a person, gender should be viewed as a fluid variable that shifts and changes in different contexts, situations, and times.

Butler further asserts that gender is a performance rather than an identity; thus, gender is what people do at particular times rather than who they are. Butler argues that because we all put on a gender performance, it is not a question of whether to do a gender performance but rather what form (traditional or non-traditional) that performance will take. That identity is a performance is one of the key ideas in queer theory. Specifically, it is not our identity that causes our performance; rather, our identity is the effect of our performance.

Butler hopes that by choosing to think differently, people will be able to change gender norms and the basic understanding of masculinity and femininity. Her writings guide the reader to the idea that people live their gender and their sexuality in different ways and that there is room for people to live happy and content lives in non-normative ways.